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II ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 15.
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shell-silver is. And if, finally, you should say that Brahman is the fictitiously forming agent, we have again arrived at a Brahman that is the abode of Nescience.If Brahman is not allowed to be the abode of Nescience, we further must ask whether Brahman sees (is conscious of) the individual souls or not. If not, it is not possible that Brahman should give rise to this manifold creation which, as Scripture declares, is preceded by 'seeing' on his part, and to the differentiation of names and forms. If, on the other hand, Brahman which is of an absolutely homogeneous nature sees the souls, it cannot do so without Nescience; and thus we are again led to the view of Nescience abiding in Brahman.
For similar reasons the theory of the distinction of Maya and Nescience must also be abandoned. For even if Brahman possesses Mâyà, i. e. illusive power, it cannot, without Nescience, be conscious of souls. And without being conscious of others the lord of Mâyå is unable to delude them by his Maya; and Mâyâ herself cannot bring about the consciousness of others on the part of its Lord, for it is a mere means to delude others, after they have (by other means) become objects of consciousness.—Perhaps you will say that the Mâyâ of Brahman causes him to be conscious of souls, and at the same time is the cause of those souls' delusion. But if Mayà causes Brahman-which is nothing but self-illuminated intelligence, absolutely homogeneous and free from all foreign elements to become conscious of other beings, then Mâyà is nothing but another name for Nescience.—Let it then be said that Nescience is the cause of the cognition of what is contrary to truth ; such being the case, Mâyå which presents all false things different from Brahman as false, and thus is not the cause of wrong cognition on the part of Brahman, is not avidya.But this is inadmissible; for, when the oneness of the moon is known, that which causes the idea of the moon being double can be nothing else but avidyå. Moreover, if Brahman recognises all beings apart from himself as false, he does not delude them; for surely none but a madman would aim at deluding beings known by him to be unreal!
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